Last week, an Indian teen from Punjab was found stealing Rs 50,000 from his father for buying accessories to play PUBG Mobile. A week before that, the Gujarat Police had implemented a ban on the game violating which will end you up in prison and they weren’t joking.
As funny as it sounds, ten people were arrested in Rajkot, Gujarat has been arrested for playing PUBG Mobile on their phones in the aftermath of the local police banning it. This also included six students who are studying in college while all of them have been arrested under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code. However, all of them have been granted bail and it’s left to the courts to make a call on the matter.
IPC 188 is a minor offence translating to disobedience to orders given by any public servant and can be punishable with up to Rs 200 and a month of imprisonment.
Besides that, eleven more people have been arrested across Ahmedabad, Himmatnagar for the same reason, bring the PUBG arrest count to 21.
The ban on PUBG came for the first time from Rajkot’s Police Commissioner who issued a notification on March 6 for banning PUBG as well as another ragged named the MOMO Challenge. Ahmedabad police commissioner issued a similar warning with effect from March 14.
In a statement, Tencent Games which happen to be the developer of PUBG Mobile said “PUBG MOBILE is a game. It is meant merely for entertainment and should be enjoyed in a healthy and responsible manner. In consonance with our endeavour to continue promoting responsible gaming experience, we are working on the introduction of a healthy game-play system in India to promote balanced, responsible gaming, including limiting play time for under-aged players. We were thus surprised to learn that local authorities in a few cities have decided to impose a ban on playing our game”.
The company added “We are working to understand the legal basis of such bans, and hope we can have a constructive dialogue with relevant authorities to explain our objectives and that they withdraw the prohibition. To PUBG MOBILE players, we want to assure you that we are on your side and we will try our best to find a reasonable solution.”